Martinus Luther, You are the Apple of My Eye

“How are we to speak German, as these asses do?”

Martin Luther is pissed. He often was. No
prissy Latin for him. He wanted good earthy language for his translation of the
Bible into the vernacular.

“Rather we must inquire about this of the
mother in the home, the children on the street, the common man in the
marketplace. We must be guided by their language, the way they speak, and do
our translating accordingly. That way they will understand it and recognize
that we are speaking German to them.”

“Augapfel”: a dread metaphor, the same one
used later in the KJV. The children of Luther’s street apparently understood it.

But not our kids. They don’t get
metaphors. They are literal-minded, according to Luther’s would-be heirs, who translate:
“He guarded them as those he loved very much” (The International Children’s
Bible, touted by Max Lucado). “Ouch!” level accuracy makes way for “It hurts me”
accuracy on this approach to translation.

Luther’s translation has rhythm and spring
to it. It even captures the onomatopoeia of the Hebrew in translation (heulen =
ילל). Here’s my hunch. Luther noticed that German
mothers of the “Kinder, Kuche, und Kirche” school could handle these things. Here
is another example of the doctor at work:

Denn so spricht der HERR Zebaoth:

Er hat mich gesandt nach Ehre

zu den Heiden, die euch beraubt
haben;

denn wer euch antastet,

der tastet seinen Augapfel an.

(Zechariah 2:8 = 2:12 in the Hebrew)

For thus said the Lord Sabaoth:

He sent me for honor

to the Gentiles who rob you;

for whoever touches you

touches the apple of his eye.

But it would be a shame to preserve the
word-play and the figure of speech of the source text for the benefit of our children, wouldn’t
it? The translators of the DE CEV come to the rescue. You decide what DE stands
for in this instance. The perps of the DE CEV do away with the source’s parsimony,
language of touch, and poetic feel, and throw this word-bomb at us:

Zion is as precious to the LORD as are his
eyes.

Whatever you do to Zion, you do to him.

20 words in English for 6 in the Hebrew. I
talk exactly like that to my children. They don’t get gapping, so I make what I’m
talking about fully explicit, not once, but twice.

I love to tell them, “you are as precious
to me as my eyes are to me.”

So, John, what metaphor would you use for modern English-speaking children on the street? They certainly don't understand "the apple of my eye", as they are not 16th century German children. If you can't do better than the Children's Bible you quote, you hardly have a right to criticise it.

There is a problem with Luther's translation of the Zechariah passage. He doesn't compensate for the fact that the Hebrew should read "My eye," not "his eye." Jewish tradition recognizes that "his eye" is a pious scribal correction of "My eye."

Just to be clear (and since one of you has emailed me offline on this): the Greek phrases above don't mean "apple of the eye" literally. This IS the way Sir Lancelot C. L. Brenton and Melvin K. H. Peters (NETS Deut.) translate the phrases. But for the Englishing of the Greeking of the Hebrew in Zach., NETS translator George E. Howard puts that second Greek phrase, above, this way:

"the pupil of his eye" making the touching of the eye the odd painful thing, and taking the imagery all the way back to v1 of ch2, where the LXX Greek translators write: τοὺς ὀφθαλμούς.

Clever, Mr. Howard. But he has modern Greek precedence for this. The modern Greeks take κόρας not from the ancient Greek "apple" but from the poets' girls. Sappho, for ex., uses the word in fragments 59, 62, 112 to mean maidens or to refer to named virginal daughters of the goddesses. (Illiad has the term frequently too, for daughters, and girls). So the moderns follow this too, as in "Η Κόρη του Δράκουλα" (for "Dracula's Daughter," the translated title of the 1936 sequel to the film Dracula). But the moderns use κόρας as much or more now (metaphorically) as daughter or girl of the eye, for the anatomical term in English for that thing inside the white part of the ball around the black part. So Mr. Howard skips over apple, and girl, and sticks the translation right in the eye, as "pupil."

Now, "pupil" is no fun for kids playing in the street on a Saturday (or reading the Bible any day). But it sure catches our eye, doesn't it?

John, I think we need to do some field testing of the expression "the apple of my/his eye" among children, off the street, not only those with church background. They may have heard the expression, but what do they think it means. I don't have any children around to ask, but perhaps you and Lingamish at least can start by asking your own children. And don't assume that because a phrase is used in songs its meaning is known, or known at all accurately.

Betta's 13. First, she mistook it for "the twinkle in your eye," and started talking about babies before they are born. Then she said, oh, I know, "someone you love," and cited a YouTube song with the phrase in it, that she hasn't seen, but that some of her friends go on about.

Thanks. Well, I suppose Betta's "someone you love" is a reasonable explanation. But are we to rely on YouTube for our understanding of the Bible? What if some other popular song completely misuses the idiom? Examples of biblical idioms completely misused in popular culture include "the skin of one's teeth" and "carry your the cross". Wouldn't it be better to have the explanation right there in the Bible text?

Thanks, Kurk as well as John, for your field testing. Maybe this particular phrase is better known than I thought. But the principle remains, that we must check whether biblical idioms are properly understood when translated literally, and not simply assume this or say that those who don't understand them should have had a better education.

John, I said nothing about annotations. I was thinking in terms of explaining the idiom in the text.

Kurk, I agree that apples are precious. I took your last suggestion and so as I write I am literally munching one, a wonderfully tasty English Cox.

Believing is KnowingComments on things like prophecy, predestination, and reward and punishment from an orthodox Jewish perspective, by David Guttmann

Ben Byerly's Blogthoughts on the Bible, Africa, Kenya, aid, and social justice, by Ben Byerly, a PhD candidate at Africa International University (AIU), in Nairobi, Kenya working on “The Hopes of Israel and the Ends of Acts” (Luke’s narrative defense of Paul to Diaspora Judeans in Acts 16-20)

C. OrthodoxyChristian, Contemporary, Conscientious… or Just Confused, by Ken Brown, a very thoughtful blog (archive). Ken is currently a Dr. Theol. student at Georg-August-Universität in Göttingen, part of The Sofja-Kovalevskaja Research Group studying early Jewish Monotheism. His dissertation will focus on the presentation of God in Job.

Catholic Biblesa thoughtful blog about Bible translations by Timothy, who has a degree in sacred theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome (Angelicum) and teaches theology in a Catholic high school in Michigan

Chrisendomirreverent blog with a focus on the New Testament, by Chris Tilling, New Testament Tutor for St Mellitus College and St Paul's Theological Centre, London

Claude Mariottinia perspective on the Old Testament and current events by a professor of Old Testament at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary, Chicagoland, Illinois

Codex: Biblical Studies Blogspotby Tyler Williams, a scholar of the Hebrew Bible and cognate literature, now Assistant Professor of Theology at The King's University College in Edmonton, Alberta (archive)

Colours of Scripturereflections on theology, philosophy, and literature, by Benjamin Smith, afflicted with scriptural synaesthesia, and located in London, England

ComplegalitarianA team blog that discusses right ways and wrong ways Scripture might help in the social construction of gender (old archive only; more recent archive, unfortunately, no longer publicly available)

Connected Christianitya place to explore what it might be like if Christians finally got the head, heart, and hands of their faith re-connected (archive)

Conversational TheologySmart and delightful comment by Ros Clarke, a Ph.D. student at the University of the Highlands and Islands, at the (virtual) Highland Theological College (archive)

Daily HebrewFor students of biblical Hebrew and the ancient Near East, by Chip Hardy, a doctoral student at the University of Chicago

Daniel O. McClellana fine blog by the same, who is pursuing a master of arts degree in biblical studies at Trinity Western University just outside of Vancouver, BC.

Davar AkherLooking for alternative explanations: comments on things Jewish and beyond, by Simon Holloway, a PhD student in Classical Hebrew and Biblical Studies at The University of Sydney, Australia

Evedyahuexcellent comment by Cristian Rata, Lecturer in Old Testament of Torch Trinity Graduate School of Theology, Seoul, Korea

Exegetica Digitadiscussion of Logos high-end syntax and discourse tools – running searches, providing the downloads (search files) and talking about what can be done and why it might matter for exegesis, by Mike Heiser

Law, Prophets, and Writingsthoughtful blogging by William R. (Rusty) Osborne, Assistant Professor of Biblical and Theological Studies as College of the Ozarks and managing editor for Journal for the Evangelical Study of the Old Testament

Lingamishdelightful fare by David Ker, Bible translator, who also lingalilngas.

old testament passionGreat stuff from Anthony Loke, a Methodist pastor and Old Testament lecturer in the Seminari Theoloji, Malaysia

Old Testament Pseudepigrapha BlogA weblog created for a course on the Old Testament Pseudepigrapha at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland, by James Davila (archive)

On the Main LineMississippi Fred MacDowell's musings on Hebraica and Judaica. With a name like that you can't go wrong.

p.ost an evangelical theology for the age to comeseeking to retell the biblical story in the difficult transition from the centre to the margins following the collapse of Western Christendom, by Andrew Perriman, independent New Testament scholar, currently located in Dubai

PaleoJudaicaby James Davila, professor of Early Jewish Studies at the University of St. Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland. Judaism and the Bible in the news; tidbits about ancient Judaism and its context

Serving the Wordincisive comment on the Hebrew Bible and related ancient matters, with special attention to problems of philology and linguistic anthropology, by Seth L. Sanders, Assistant Professor in the Religion Department of Trinity College, Hartford, CT

Targumanon biblical and rabbinic literature, Christian theology, gadgetry, photography, and the odd comic, by Christian Brady, associate professor of ancient Hebrew and Jewish literature and dean of the Schreyer Honors College at Penn State

The Biblia Hebraica Bloga blog about Hebrew Bible/Old Testament, the history of the Ancient Near East and the classical world, Syro-Palestinian archaeology, early Judaism, early Christianity, New Testament interpretation, English Bible translations, biblical theology, religion and culture, philosophy, science fiction, and anything else relevant to the study of the Bible, by Douglas Magnum, PhD candidate, University of the Free State, South Africa

Technorati

Terms

Ancient Hebrew Poetry is a weblog of John F. Hobbins. Opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of his
professional affiliations. Unless otherwise indicated, the contents
of Ancient Hebrew Poetry, including all text, images, and other
media, are original and licensed under a Creative
Commons License.